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Cave music: Taylor Ashton performs in
the vaults of the Crown Finish Caves in
Crown Heights. Photo by Caroline Ourso
Culture club
Fans flock to concert series in cheese cave
COURIER LIFE, MARCH 2 24-7 9–APRIL 4, 2019 41
TBy Colin Mixson he Crown Heights underground
music scene is tight!
A monthly concert series located
inside a century-old subterranean tunnel
has become so popular among Kings
County music fans that its operators
have chosen to ditch their first-come,
first-served ticket policy in favor of a
lottery system. They hope the new policy
will even the playing field between
quick-clicking cyber-jockeys and more
casual attendees.
“The last three concerts sold out less
than a minute after tickets went on sale,”
said property owner Benton Brown.
“People were furious.”
The tunnel was originally built by
19th century beer-maker Nassau Brewery
to hold barrels of lager as they aged.
Brown and his wife Susan Boyle use one
of the three sprawling, 1850s-era vaults
beneath their Bergen Street property as a
cheese-aging facility, under the moniker
Crown Finish Caves. The grotto holds
upwards of 30,000 pounds of curdled
dairy, which can spend up to a year
fermenting in the cool darkness 30 feet
below ground.
But once a month or so, the couple
hosts some of the city’s most intimate
musical performances in one of
the vacant vaults. The 70 tickets they
sell online evaporate almost instantly,
consigning hundreds of would-be showgoers
to hopelessly massive wait lists,
according to Brown. A recent show
featuring jazz vocalist Queen Esther and
songwriter Taylor Ashton left 860 people
on the stand-by list feeling bleu.
The music is great, said the Crown
Heights cheese maker, but the show’s
unique and exclusive venue provides an
undeniable draw.
“It’s an experience,” said Brown.
“You’re going to a kind of space you’ve
never really been to before.”
The cheese cave’s next show, featuring
fiddlers Sammy Lind and Nadine
Landry on May 2, will feature the first
audience chosen by lottery. Would-be
attendees can start signing up at Crown
Finish Cave’s website on April 15.
The cheese makers will also raffle
off chances to buy five pairs of tickets
to the next show to customers who buy
cheese at their monthly pop-up sales
event, held at their Bergen Street dairy
business. Brown described the raffle as
“the easy way” of getting into the shows.
Interested cheese-eaters can keep an eye
on the business’s Instagram page to hear
about the next pop-up sale.
Catch a show at Crown Finish Caves
925 Bergen St. between Classon and
Franklin avenues in Crown Heights,
(718) 857–2717, www.crownfinishcaves.
com. May 2 at 8 pm. $32.
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